The Salk Institute has enlisted a new ally in the effort to address the anticipated dangers of climate change — plants.

Scientists at the institute propose to breed plants to more efficiently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, sequestering it in the ground for many decades. This could reduce global warming, expected if future temperatures rise as they have in the last several decades.

By using plants as biological carbon scrubbers, as much as half the human contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide could be trapped semi-permanently in the soil, said Joanne Chory, one of the plant scientists leading the program.

“If you want to fight climate change, you need a photosynthetic organism,” she said. “So that's what we're going to do. We're going to get plants to keep carbon in the ground, sequester it.”

To achieve this goal, plants will also be bred to thrive under widely varying climatic conditions, Chory said.

About six percent of the world’s cultivated land would be needed, and much of that could be in areas of marginal productivity, Chory said. These crops wouldn’t be grown for human consumption, but could include animal feed.

The implications extend beyond carbon. Breeding plants to be more resilient to varying climates, to diseases and droughts, is key to increasing agricultural productivity.

Global population is projected to rise from about 7.4 billion today to 8.5 billion in 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2050, global population is projected to reach 9.4 billion.

In addition, more food will be needed if malnourished populations are to be brought out of poverty and into the middle class.

Chory said the project arose from discussions among other plant scientists at the institute. Four lead the project along with Chory: Joseph Ecker, Joseph Noel, Julie Law and Wolfgang Busch.

“The bottom line was, we all woke up and said look the world is having a crisis, and it's a crisis that plants can deal with,” Chory said.

Climate-controlled chambers are being installed at the institute to assess plants bred for their carbon-capturing abilities. These can simulate the great majority of climates, Chory said, allowing manipulating of light, temperature and humidity.

Two plant species are already being grown in the chambers. One is arabidopsis, a wild member of the mustard family. It’s a commonly used model organism for understanding plant biology. The other, Lotus japonicus, is another model organism, a legume also used by foraging animals.

The goal is to make these plants produce more of a carbon-rich substance called suberin, the major component of cork. Suberin is produced in their roots, protecting them from water loss. Suberin resists biodegradation, potentially lasting for many decades.

“It’s a pretty efficient way that doesn't require a lot of human intervention once the plants get growing,” Chory said. “They do it automatically as part of life.”

This can be done either through genetic engineering, or by using knowledge of genetics to find naturally occurring varieties of plants with useful genes, and then cross them with traditional breeding, Chory said.

Genetic engineering to directly insert the desired genes would be quicker, but it faces opposition from some activists, she said.

When the scientists discussed the initiative with Robert Redford, who has long been familiar with the Salk Institute, he was happy to appear at Friday's event to support it, Chory said. Rebecca Newman, the Salk’s vice president of external relations, introduced the scientists to Redford.

“He came and visited us,” Chory said. “We talked to him about the initiative, and he liked it. So he was willing to be a spokesperson for us.”

More funding is needed to carry the project to completion, Chory said. That includes hiring staff and buying a seed-planting robot. Salk is raising money for the latter in a crowdfunding effort. More information on that is available at salk.edu/robot.

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